The present disclosure relates generally to algae cultivation systems and methods, and more particularly to open raceway algae cultivation systems and methods.
Algae cultivation has become widely recognized as a promising source of food, biofuel, chemicals, and nutraceuticals. Open algae cultivation systems have been developed for large-scale cultivation. The energy to operate a pump that circulates algae cultivation fluid or slurry is an important operating cost in these open systems. Larger open systems typically have a zone in a channel width entering the pump, and zone in a channel width exiting the pump. The bottom of the channels in these systems are typically level or gently sloped, so the speed of the algae slurry is much higher in the zones entering and exiting the pumps than the velocity in the rest of the channel. The acceleration and the high velocity both result in large energy losses. For level raceways, the energy losses are even greater than sloped systems.
New and improved algae cultivation systems and methods are accordingly needed.